Weekly Menu for August 15-19, 2005
Sign up to get the weekly dinner menus by email each week.
Welcome to the menu for August 15-19! In order to make the best use of Menus 4 Moms, before beginning the Menu please read the Menus 4 Moms plan basics and the Busy Cooks Pyramid as Menus 4 Moms will be based on these items each week. If you have questions, please check the FAQ page.
The menu for this week features Chicken and Wild Rice Soup, grilled Beef Kabobs over Yellow Rice, Tacos, Tater Tot Casserole, and a Forkless Friday (or Fingerfood Friday, if you prefer) with Sloppy Joes. By the end of the week, you will have replenished your ground beef in the freezer, added marinated kabob meat, sloppy joe meat, cooked beans, and sauteed peppers and onions.
If you have questions or suggestions for other moms using the menus, you now have a place to post! The Menus 4 Moms Yahoo group is to discuss the menus and recipes, ask for help, make suggestions, and meet other moms using the menus. If you want to keep up with updates & corrections to the menus but don't want the higher volume of mail, please join and set your preferences to Special Notices only. I will send out all corrections as Special Notices so you will only receive those.

Click to join Menus 4 Moms Yahoo group
Enjoy the weekly menu!
Our sponsor
Stayin' Home and Lovin' It
Menu for August 15-19, 2005
Monday - Recipes
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup with Mushrooms
Cottage Cheese
Sliced Peaches
Bread
Tuesday - Recipes
Beef Kabobs over Yellow Rice
Salad
Sourdough Bread
Wednesday - Recipes
Tacos
Refried Beans
Spanish Rice
Thursday - Recipes
Tater Tot Casserole
Celery stuffed with Pimiento Cheese
Watermelon Slices
Friday - Recipes
Sloppy Joes
Corn on the Cob
Sliced Raw Vegetables with Dip
Grocery List
This week's Grocery List can be downloaded here:
Grocery List for August 15-19, 2005 - PDF
Shopping List Software format (download shopping list free Windows software)
Monday Recipes
Notes for Monday:
- You should have some leftover chicken from last week's sticky chicken or from the freezer that you can use in tonight's soup. If not, plan on buying a hen and boiling it with some celery and onions in the morning. Save the broth, pick the meat from the bones, then add the bones back to the broth and simmer again. This will give you a nice broth as a base for the soup. You can strain the broth and discard the bones and vegetables before starting the soup.
- You can use canned mushrooms for the soup, but fresh sliced mushrooms will give it much more flavor.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup with Mushrooms
- 2 cups shredded chicken
- 2 cans chicken broth* or 4 cups homemade broth
- 1 onion, chopped & sauteed (from freezer)
- 1/2 cup wild rice blend
- 8 oz. sliced mushrooms
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup cooking sherry (optional)
- Adobo seasoning
- 4 tbsp. flour
Combine first 4 ingredients in slow cooker on high. Saute mushrooms in butter until tender. Add to slow cooker. Once soup is hot, add cream of mushroom soup, stirring until well blended. Season to taste with Adobo. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.1 hour before serving, mix flour with 1/3 cup hot water until dissolved and add to soup to thicken. 30 minutes before serving, add milk and sherry.
Ciabatta Bread
Cottage Cheese
Sliced Peaches
Tuesday Recipes
Notes for Tuesday
- I suggest freezing a second pound of kabob meat in the marinade in a freezer bag. When you are ready to cook it, just thaw and grill with vegetables. I have added extra meat to the grocery list and doubled the marinade recipe for this purpose.
- If you don't have kabob skewers, you can grill this loose on a vegetable grate and serve it loose over rice.

Beef Kabobs over Yellow Rice
- 2 lbs. beef kabob meat
- 3 red or green* bell peppers
- 8 oz. whole mushrooms
- 2 onions
- 1 pkg yellow rice, cooked according to directions
Marinade
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp. garlic powder
- 4 Tbsp. olive oil
Mix marinade ingredients. Pour half into a freezer bag with half of the meat; freeze. Pour the other half in a marinating container with the other pound of beef. Marinate for several hours.
Wash vegetables and chop into 2x2 pieces (leave mushrooms whole). Alternate beef and vegetables on kabob skewers and grill until beef is done. Serve over yellow rice.
Salad
Sourdough Bread
Wednesday Recipes
Notes for Wednesday:
- You can make soft or hard tacos, whichever your family prefers.
- Start your beans in the morning if you are cooking dried beans. If you have cooked beans in the freezer, use those instead. Refried beans can be made from pinto beans, kidney beans, red beans, or black beans. I like black beans (and that is what they served each meal in Mexico when I was there) so that is what is what is on the list. Use your favorite kind.

Tacos
- tortillas or taco shells*
- 1 lb. cooked ground beef (from freezer)
- 1 pkg. taco seasoning
- shredded lettuce
- diced tomatoes
- grated cheese
- sour cream
- salsa
Prepare taco meat according to package directions. For softer tacos that don't bread when you bite them, preheat oven to 300°. Fill each taco with meat and grated cheese and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 5 minutes. Serve with lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and salsa.
Spanish Rice
- 1 chopped onion, sauteed (from freezer)
- black pepper
- chili powder
- cumin
- Adobo seasoning
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
- Olive oil
- 1 can (15 oz.) chicken broth
- 1 cup water
Saute onion in olive oil in a Dutch oven until tender; remove from pan. Add 2 T. olive oil to pan and brown the uncooked rice. Do not burn! Add chicken broth and water (this will sizzle loudly when the liquid meets the hot oil), add seasonings to taste, and bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low for 20 minutes; do not open. When cooked, add onions and any other warmed items you may have on hand that would be good in rice (corn, salsa, Rotel, etc.). Stir gently and serve.

Refried Beans
- 1 bag black turtle beans (kidney,pinto, or red beans also work)
- cumin
- Adobo or garlic salt
- olive oil
- 1 can red enchilada sauce
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Rinse beans in a colander and check to be sure there are no stones or other debris. Place beans in a dutch oven and cover with water so that the water is twice as deep as the beans. Heat to boiling and boil for 2 minutes. Turn heat off and cover, let sit for 1 hour. Drain beans in colander and rinse pot. Place beans in slow cooker and cover with water, making sure the water is twice as deep as the beans. Cook on Hi for 5 hours or Low for 8-10 hours.
Drain beans, reserving liquid (place colander on a lg. pan or bowl then pour beans in). Separate beans into 2 cup servings in freezer bags, reserving 4 cups of beans for tonight's meal. Cover beans in each bag with some of reserved liquid.
Mash 4 cups of beans, adding enough liquid to make beans mushy and soft. Heat 2 T. olive oil in a fry pan and add mashed beans and spices to taste. Stir until hot and bubbly. Heat enchilada sauce in a sauce pan and serve beans topped with enchilada sauce and shredded cheddar cheese.
Thursday Recipes
Notes for Thursday:
- This isn't one of the healthiest meals, but it is easy to make and easy to adapt to what you have on hand. Feel free to substitute cooked chicken and cream of chicken soup if that is what you have.
Tater Tot Casserole
- 1- 32. oz package frozen Tater Tots
- 1/2 lb. browned ground beef (from freezer)
- 1- 16 oz. container sour cream
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 can cream of celery soup
- 1- 4 oz. can mushrooms, drained
- 1 pkg. sauteed onions (from freezer)
- 1- 6 oz. can French fried onions
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x13 casserole pan. Place frozen tater tots in bottom of pan. Sprinkle beef over tater tots. In a bowl, mix sour cream,cheese, soups, mushrooms, and sauteed onions. Pour over beef. Top with French fried onions. Bake for 50-60 minutes.
Celery Sticks Stuffed with Pimiento Cheese
Watermelon Slices
Friday Recipes
Notes for Friday:
- I have doubled the ingredients for Sloppy Joes so that you can freeze a bag for a quick meal later.
- I am adding 5 lbs. ground beef to the list. You can use two for the Sloppy Joes and the other 3 to be browned and frozen to replace what you used this week. Remember to rotate your freezer so you use the oldest first.
- I have added a bag of onions and 3 bell peppers. Chop and saute these together and freeze all but what you need for tonight's Sloppy Joes just like you freeze your onions.
Sloppy Joes
Recipe is here. Be sure to double it and freeze half. Serve over hamburger buns.
Corn on the Cob
Sliced raw vegetables with dip
* Indicates that of the options listed, this item is the one on the grocery list.
